"Who is going to save our Church? Not our bishops, not our priests and religious. It is up to you, the people. You have the minds, the eyes, the ears to save the Church. Your mission is to see that your priests act like priests, your bishops, like bishops, and your religious act like religious." - Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, 1972

Sunday, June 28, 2015

POSTED BY REQUEST - FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE USCCB

I am posting the following at the request of someone I respect. I have some thoughts of my own as to the liability of our church leaders for permitting the development of a culture which has led to this, not the least of which is their role in the serious damage to our church over the many years they looked the other way while minors were sexually abused. I will share those thoughts another time. Nevertheless, while our own bishop plans his next trip with his boy toys and relegates the issuance of any moral statement to his ghost writer, we would do well to be reminded that there are still bishops in our church who are solicitous for our salvation.

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court decision, June 26, interpreting the U.S. Constitution to require all states to license and recognize same-sex “marriage” “is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us,” said Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz of Louisville, Kentucky, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).

The full statement follows:

Regardless of what a narrow majority of the Supreme Court may declare at this moment in history, the nature of the human person and marriage remains unchanged and unchangeable. Just as Roe v. Wade did not settle the question of abortion over forty years ago, Obergefell v. Hodges does not settle the question of marriage today. Neither decision is rooted in the truth, and as a result, both will eventually fail. Today the Court is wrong again. It is profoundly immoral and unjust for the government to declare that two people of the same sex can constitute a marriage.

The unique meaning of marriage as the union of one man and one woman is inscribed in our bodies as male and female. The protection of this meaning is a critical dimension of the “integral ecology” that Pope Francis has called us to promote. Mandating marriage redefinition across the country is a tragic error that harms the common good and most vulnerable among us, especially children. The law has a duty to support every child’s basic right to be raised, where possible, by his or her married mother and father in a stable home.

Jesus Christ, with great love, taught unambiguously that from the beginning marriage is the lifelong union of one man and one woman. As Catholic bishops, we follow our Lord and will continue to teach and to act according to this truth.

I encourage Catholics to move forward with faith, hope, and love: faith in the unchanging truth about marriage, rooted in the immutable nature of the human person and confirmed by divine revelation; hope that these truths will once again prevail in our society, not only by their logic, but by their great beauty and manifest service to the common good; and love for all our neighbors, even those who hate us or would punish us for our faith and moral convictions.

Lastly, I call upon all people of good will to join us in proclaiming the goodness, truth, and beauty of marriage as rightly understood for millennia, and I ask all in positions of power and authority to respect the God-given freedom to seek, live by, and bear witness to the truth.

######

I would like to follow this with my own Facebook statement, posted after I heard about the ruling:

For those who care about "traditional marriage", start practicing it.

Stop cheating.

Stop divorcing.

Stop contracepting.

In short, stop preaching about God's plan and go back to it: "male and female he made them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."

14 comments:

I do hope and pray that thisarticle could be published in both the Pacific Daily News and the Marianas Variety, and if possible the Umatuna..., where I hope that those relatives of mine who criticize my stance on samesex union may read it..., I know they feel that they are more educated than me, but I do hope they will read it and understand why I stand with the teaching of the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. jesofchalanpago

You are not alone. I have encountered some who think that we are nothing but hypocrites. While we do have Christians who betray our Lord constantly, there are many more who try their best to stay faithful. Some even truly follow Christ's command to love one another, especially your enemies. Keep praying my brother in Christ.

So was the AAA extension enough for AAA to buy his entourage tickets to go chase the Pope again? Maybe we can put a go-pro camera at the airport to catch them in action. Was he invited to Korea or the P.I. when the Pope was there? Is he invited to this Papal visit? Just asking.

3:02 am, come on man! You know you are better than that. Why resort to low-blow ad hominem attack on the messenger when you can face the facts squarely and objectively? Please stick to the crucial issues at hand because in the end, we are all in this together. We can bully anyone and everyone on the school playground to feel good about ourselves but in the end we are in school to learn, and to succeed in life. In our faith life each person is simply working for his or her eternal salvation. Lighten up, and see for yourself the damage we are inflicting on one another, and draw your conclusion.

3:02 You simply are adding yourself on to the existing pile of sample fruits of the neo ways and neo mission. You make it easy for us to regard the ncw as a joke and make it also easy for us to continue denying financial support to aaa and to our archdiocese as long as the aaa continues in his present position.

This is an excellent article. Thanks for posting this Tim. Proponents of same-sex marriage have changed the opinion and perspective of many people by changing the definition of marriage and shifting the focus from what constitutes marriage to equal rights. They will win this argument every time.

The basic question is "What is marriage?" Religions aside, the definition has been the union of one man and one woman. Now the Supreme Court has decreed marriage is a union of one man and one woman, one woman and one woman, and one man and one man. The court bought into the argument that marriage is a right and no person can be denied a right. But is marriage a right? This question hinges on the accepted definition of marriage. As soon as you change the definition of marriage traditional views, arguments and reason go out the window. The legal battles are far from over. The court has opened the door to many more issues besides the same-sex marriage debate. The unintended consequences of this decision are just around the corner.

as archbishop chaput, george weigel, and others have said in their responses, the scotus decision is not a surprise at all. marriage has been in trouble in the u.s.a. and the rest of the "developed world" for decades. we don't need to look at general statistics to see this for ourselves: just look at our island community and at our own parishes. look within our own families!

with the redefinition of marriage, the very words "husband" and "wife" are redefined. these are definitions that have been understood by humans for as long as we've been around. they're words whose definitions require a partner. a man can only be a husband if he has a wife, and a woman can only be a wife if she has a husband.

but now those words have been redefined in the u.s. by judicial decree. the Church warns that the effects of doing this will be dire, not on the Church itself, but on human society as a whole. it's sad that many of the same people who are convinced of long-term effects when it comes to climate change refuse to consider the dangerous long-term effects when it comes to redefining marriage. well, as blogger mark shea says, we're entering the "how were we supposed to know?" phase of this careless and immoral experiment. our generation may be long gone by the time people have learned its consequences. but, as the late cardinal francis george said, whenever that happens, the Church "will pick up the shards of a ruined society and slowly help rebuild civilization."

in terms of human rights, we have the right to not be compelled by any government to redefine the fundamental meaning of some of the most basic words in our shared human vocabulary. we have to keep reminding the government of this right. the truth is worth fighting for. it's worth dying for.

we often point out "the failure of catechesis" as partly to blame for many of today's societal ills, including this one. and yet our catechesis continues to push terms like "the common good" and "natural law" and "preferential option." the problem with this is most people (like me!) don't even have a clue what many of those terms mean. to that, the teachers revert to: "well, it's their fault they never learned what 'natural law' means." that's really effective, isn't it? we need a truly effective catechesis, one that isn't afraid of the truth, one that really sinks in. (the neocat teaching ain't it, either.)

so, more than ever, we need witnesses to authentic marriage. let us begin in our own home ... and remember also that in latin, the word for "witness" is "martyr." are we prepared to be martyrs? may the Lord have mercy on us and give us strength.

3:02, What's up? Staying up late to walk through the Jungle? Didn't your Mama tell you not to go out late at night? Oh, that's right, you came from a jungle before coming to Guam. Tsk, tsk, how forgetful of me. Oh we'll, your English is getting better for one. Bye bye!

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TIME SINCE ARCHBISHOP APURON SAID HE WOULD FIND IT.

Archbishop Apuron, December 15, 2014.

"Rome has approved it – even the way we’re receiving Communion. That they receive the host standing and they can sit down and everybody who receives it and they eat together...Rome has given permission for that. And it’s somewhere I need to find out where exactly, but they told us that permission is given."